ERC Advanced Grant for Physicist Alexey Boyarsky
Leiden physicist Alexey Boyarsky, together with his colleagues from Lausanne and Copenhagen, has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant to research an extension of the standard model of particle physics. The leading house of the project is the Technical University of Lausanne. 580.000 euro goes directly to Leiden.
Standard model
Boyarsky and his colleagues Prof. M. Shaposhnikov from the Technical University of Lausanne and Prof. O. Ruchayskiy from the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen aim to create an extension of the so-called standard model of particle physics, which in its current form is inconsistent with some observations in the Universe, like the presence of dark matter or the large dominance of matter over antimatter.
Left-handed
One of the peculiar features of the standard model is that it only contains left-handed neutrinos. This is an important aspect, because these lightweight particles played a major role in the evolution of the Universe during the period right after the Big Bang. The international collaboration now wants to investigate an extension with right-handed neutrinos.
Signatures
The team will make predictions about the signatures that scientists might see in their data obtained from both particle accelerators and telescopes directed at far away galaxies. If those signatures would indeed be visible, it means the confirmation of the team’s proposal. In that case, the problems that physicists have with the standard model are solved.
Experimental
Aside from making theoretical models, Boyarsky will analyze observational telescope data himself as well. He needs to be patient, though, for any confirmation from particle accelerators, as his recently endorsed SHiP experiment won’t start until 2020. The ERC grant enables Boyarsky to hire one postdoc and a PhD student.